Srinagar, June 19 -- Walk into any village, hamlet or far-flung corner of the country today and look closely at the kitchen. The smoke is gone. Where a chulha once stung the eyes of a young bride, an Ujjwala flame now burns clean and blue. The bucket that her mother-in-law carried from a distant handpump has been replaced by a Har Ghar Jal tap. The open field behind the house is no longer her only option; a Swachh Bharat toilet stands in the courtyard. The pucca roof above her is registered in her own name. In her purse sits a Jan Dhan passbook, in her phone a UPI app, and on her wrist, sometimes, the watch of a Lakhpati Didi who now earns more than her husband.

This is not an imaginary picture printed on a poster. It is a truth of women...